


Dark Hearts

by profoundlyfadedprincess



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, dark!Hook, dark!swan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2016-12-29
Packaged: 2018-09-13 03:29:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9104710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/profoundlyfadedprincess/pseuds/profoundlyfadedprincess
Summary: Emma finds herself climbing the Beanstalk in a bid to find a cure to the Darkness eating it's way through them.





	

Dark Hearts

 

Of all the places Emma Swan though she would find herself, climbing a beanstalk to a giant’s layer again was not it. The whole thing had seemed absurd the first time around, this time was just heartbreaking. Emma climbed the vines, the tip of the sword slung around her waist nipping her ankles.

 

With all the power brimming with her fingertips, she couldn’t transport herself up there. She supposed it was a benefit given it meant she had a heart start.

 

She focused on the greenery before her. Behind her lay carnage. While it was not her flick of the hand that caused it, she was still to blame. Months had passed as Emma had wandered the desolate fields of the Enchanted Forest looking for an answer to her deeds.

 

Nothing had been forthcoming until she had strolled through the fairy garden. While she did not have the eons of wisdom Blue possessed, Emma understood what the ancient tome was telling her.

 

But it hinged on something that seemed terribly out of reach.

 

True Love.

 

She wondered whether she was destined to ever reach that bond with the man she loved. More than one failed attempt of True Love’s Kiss lay at their feet. But now Killian was the Dark One. Dangerous and fully reverted to the vengeful pirate he had once warned her existed. By his own words, the man she met under the bodies of Cora’s victims, was nothing compared to the man who existed a hundred years earlier. His quest had somewhat tired him when they first met.

 

Her fingers curled into the vines. With renewed energy tugged herself towards the Kingdom above.

 

==

==

 

It’s a wrecked mess. Tiny long since gone. Emma’s gaze travelled the courtyard, unseeing of the now. Lost in the past.

 

Eyes meet, a moment connection followed by a stab of desire.

 

Her feet tread the same path as before, eyes going to the scar on her hand. The thought had passed her mind as she became more adept with her magic to heal it, but the reminder of cool metal around her wrist stayed her mind.

 

‘I thought you weren’t the sentimental sort?’

 

Kilian’s voice echoed across the courtyard. Emma paused, still as a statue as the familiar steps of Killian Jones echo around her. The swish of leather is a comforting sound. She can remember the smell of it as if it were printed on her.

 

‘Things change,’ she replied.

 

‘Aye.’

 

Going by the soft tenor of his voice, she can tell she is speaking to Killian rather than Hook. She’s taken to splitting his personality; Killian, the man she loves and Hook, the Dark One. It’s clumsy. It wasn’t so long ago she still called him Hook with the tenderness she has now assigned to his given name.

 

She turns, twisting on the balls of her feet so she faces him. He looks different, almost serene with his thumb hooked in his belt. His eyes flicker as he looks at her; a conflict waging between good and evil.

 

Black and white.

 

The last time they crossed paths, and swords, he had been nothing short of black fury incarnate.

 

‘You went to the Fairy Hollow. Then you came here.’

 

He poses it as a statement, but curiosity flairs in his eyes. Emma blinked, reaching out through her mind via the Darkness that held them. Trying to sense what it is he is feeling.

 

He shuts her down, chuckling coldly. ‘You’re up to something, Swan.’

 

‘I’m trying to save you,’ she replied, but she knows he’s too far gone for that sort of sentiment.

 

‘When are you going to learn, I don’t need saving? This,’ he said, ‘is what I am.’ He took few steps towards her, prowling. ‘You might have tamed the wolf for a short while, Swan, but even you knew it wouldn’t last forever.’

 

Her mind is tossed back to a few weeks earlier in a log cabin when he declared her his happy ending, her heart solidifying in its love for him as a tear dripped from her eye.

 

‘And did Milah only tame the wolf for a short while, as well?’

 

‘Don’t speak of what you don’t understand,’ he spat at her.

 

While he holds his posture, she can feel the malevolent waves rolling off him. Their eyes meet, fighting it out before she flicks her wrist and he is frozen. The same magic courses through their veins now but she is more proficient in using it.

 

‘What are you doing?’ Killian demanded.

 

‘You’ll see.’

 

==

==

 

She walked passed him, their eyes meeting before she headed off towards the castle. The plaza echoed with memories, her eyes scan the floor for what she is looking for but there is nothing but unwashed stone.

 

‘Swan?’

 

Killian’s voice lilted with interest, feigned no doubt as she placed a mental block which stopped him sense her own direction of thought. She closed her eyes and blocked it, much as she had done the last time they were here and she had him trapped.

 

A flash in her mind.

 

The doors tower up before her. It’s been a long time since she felt so small.

 

‘Swan?’

 

His voice is angry now, hitching in volume as it becomes clear she isn’t listening to him. Instead of responding, she walks into the expansive castle. It’s somewhat a surprise that no one has returned here to loot the place. If she is honest with herself, when she boarded the _Jolly Roger_ for the first time she expected to find at least a chest full of treasure from here below deck. Even Jacques sword lays where she last saw it.

 

Her footsteps echo on the cold flagstone. Even in the darkness, the gold glints around her. She finds herself pondering Killian’s question from long ago on just how much they could get down the Beanstalk. As Dark One’s, she’s sure they could clear the place out if they only had a place to keep it all.

 

The thoughts were interrupted by a rush of footsteps. Before she can move, Killian’s grabs her wrist and she is pushed against the bars of the trap they had once activated on Tiny. Their bodies are close, his hips pressed to hers, eyes devouring her like a man possessed. Despite the ire rolling off him and intruding into her mind their fingers entwined.

 

‘Answer me, Swan,’ he whispered, bending to her ear. ‘What are you doing here?’

 

‘Searching for something you have been more than willing to believe in for longer than I,’ she replied pulling herself free of him.

 

Oddly, despite her being the product of True Love and him, the angry vengeful pirate, it had always been Killian Jones who was certain about True Love. Not just any True Love, but it existing between them. She walked backward from him as he continued to prowl closer.

 

‘Oh Emma,’ the softness of his voice isn’t tender, but mocking. ‘It doesn’t exist.’

 

Where the Darkness nothing more than a casing, she might have flown into a rage. But her heart, built by True Love and nurtured further by the words she had been too afraid to say ticks. She resists the urge to contradict him. So, she turns and continues her path to where the memories of this place end.

 

Killian follows her, a monster stalking his prey as she rounds the corner.

 

Then she sees it. Rooted in the ground.

 

‘A tree?’

 

‘Sapling,’ she corrects automatically as she walks towards it.

 

The memories of them echo loudest at this spot, besides the tumbled stone she feared had killed him. The first time her heart lurched in fear for him. It is beating now, pumping an erratic rhythm. Evidence of just how long ago she fell in love with him, with each other, stands before them.

 

Killian doesn’t understand, of course. But he’s intrigued. She can sense the rage dying, the sort of interest flaring that can only come from a well-learned soul finding something new. As Killian stands beside her, for the first time since taking the Darkness, Emma feels like it’s just them, looking at something extraordinary.

 

‘It’s where we fell in love.’

 

Emma walks forward as Killian looks around, a soft expression of surprise leaving his lips. She crouches down where the sapling stands, tall, proud and somehow still strong. He joined her on the other side, the darkness vanishing from his eyes. His ring-clad hand reached out. She mirrored the move.

 

The flash of light, the overload of memories and sensations, send them flying backward. Emma cries out as she skids along the floor then tumbles over herself. Across the room, she can hear Killian groan as he comes to a halt.

 

The casing is gone. The sticky residue of the Darkness that had been trying to seep into her bones and steal her heart is gone. It’s replaced by familiar red.

 

‘Killian?’

 

She scrambled to her feet, runs over and throws herself down at his side. It’s gone from him too. She cups his cheek as a sob of relief escapes her lips.

 

She kisses him. Right where they fell in love.

 

 


End file.
